A goal of automotive heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems is to make vehicle occupants comfortable. To achieve this goal, it may be important that the design of the control system that establishes cabin conditions takes into account the relationship between comfort and the variables that affect comfort.
In an attempt to measure and control the many variables that affect comfort, modern automotive HVAC systems have a numerous sensors and control actuators. An HVAC system may have a temperature sensor inside the cabin, one measuring ambient temperature outside, and others measuring various temperatures of the systems' internal workings. A vehicle occupant may have an ability to provide some input to the HVAC system via a set point, or adjustment. Additional sensors measuring sun heating load, humidity, etc., may be available to the HVAC system. A set of actuators may include a variable speed blower, some means for varying air temperature, ducting, and vents to control the direction of air flow and the ratio of fresh air to recirculated air.
In some examples, a vehicle may include an interior cabin humidity sensor, which may comprise a dielectric or capacitive humidity sensor. In such an example, the interior cabin humidity sensor's readings may be affected by localized humidity in the air immediately surrounding the sensor. Such a sensor may be difficult to rationalize, or calibrate, as humidity inside a cabin of the vehicle may be substantially different than humidity external to, or surrounding the vehicle. An interior cabin humidity sensor that is not regularly calibrated, or compensated, may adversely affect the HVAC system, and its ability to regulate comfort level, fog inside the vehicle cabin on the vehicle windows, etc. Thus, a method for regularly calibrating an interior humidity sensor positioned in a cabin of a vehicle, is desired.
The inventors herein have recognized these issues, and have developed systems and methods to at least partially address the above issues. In one example, the issues described above may be addressed by a method comprising calibrating a first vehicle humidity sensor positioned inside a cabin of a vehicle via obtaining one or more humidity measurements with one or more personal computing devices positioned inside the cabin; and adjusting a vehicle heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system responsive to calibrating the first vehicle humidity sensor. In one example, the one or more personal devices includes a second humidity sensor, and in some examples, the one or more personal computing devices comprises a cellular phone. In this way, a vehicle's interior humidity sensor may be calibrated via a sensor experiencing the same environment as the interior humidity sensor.
As an example obtaining the one or more humidity measurements with the one or more personal computing devices further comprises positioning the one or more personal computing devices within a threshold distance from the first humidity sensor prior to obtaining the one or more humidity measurements. For example, positioning the one or more personal computing devices within the threshold distance from the first humidity sensor may in some examples include using one or more cameras included in the one or more personal computing devices to direct the one or more personal computing devices to within the threshold distance. In some examples, the one or more personal computing devices are equipped with a software application, the software application including instructions pertaining to how to obtain the one or more humidity measurements. In this way, accurate humidity measurements for calibrating a vehicle's interior humidity sensor may be obtained via the use of the personal computing device, which may be more accurate for calibrating an interior humidity sensor than relying on humidity information stemming from external to a cabin of the vehicle.
The above advantages and other advantages, and features of the present description will be readily apparent from the following Detailed Description when taken alone or in connection with the accompanying drawings.
It should be understood that the summary above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined uniquely by the claims that follow the detailed description. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted above or in any part of this disclosure.